THE WITCHING HOUR ➸ h. potter

22 - on the field

Harry and I spent a lot of time over the next few days dodging out of sight whenever we saw Gilderoy Lockhart coming down a corridor. Harder to avoid was Colin Creevey, who seemed to have memorized Harry's schedule. Nothing seemed to give Colin a bigger thrill than to say, "All right, Harry?" six or seven times a day and hear, "Hello, Colin," back, however exasperated Harry sounded when he said it.

I honestly didn't understand his obsession at all, but then, I had known Harry since my first day at Hogwarts and had treated him like a normal human being ever since then. Probably because I hadn't grown up hearing stories about how amazing nd powerful he was.

A lot was going wrong for us. Ron's wand was only getting worse, Hermione seemed to have been possessed by Lockhart - unable to talk about anything else. Studies were getting tougher by the day. All in all, I was really looking forward to the weekend. Harry, Ron, Hermione and I were planning to visit Hagrid on Saturday morning.

However I was shaken awake almost an hour earlier that I would have liked, by Angelina Johnson, one of my fellow chasers.

"Angelina? Uh- what are you doing here?" I asked sleepily.

"Quidditch practice!" She said. "Wood sent me to wake you up. C'mon, he's getting Harry."

I squinted at the window. There was a thin mist hanging across the pink and gold sky. Now that I was awake, I couldn't understand how I could have slept through the racket the birds were making.

"Angelina," I croaked. "It's the crack of dawn."

"I know, but Wood says its the best time for practice. No one else has started playing, so we get the whole pitch to ourselves."

I sighed, jumping up and pulling on my scarlet Quidditch robes. Then I grabbed my broomstick and headed for the common room.

"Morning Harry." I said, seeing him standing there as well, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes before going outside.

"Hey, Nat." He mumbled.

We had just reached the portrait hole when there was a clatter behind us and Colin Creevey came dashing down the spiral staircase, his camera swinging madly around his neck and something clutched in his hand.

"I heard someone saying your name on the stairs, Harry! Look what I've got here! I've had it developed, I wanted to show you—"

I looked bemusedly at the photograph Colin was brandishing under Harry's nose.

A moving, black and white Lockhart was tugging hard on an arm Harry recognized as his own. I was pleased to see that Harry's photographic self was putting up a good fight and refusing to be dragged into view. As we watched, Lockhart gave up and slumped, panting, against the white edge of the picture.

"Will you sign it?" said Colin eagerly.

"No," said Harry flatly. "Sorry, Colin, I'm in a hurry—Quidditch practice—"

He climbed through the portrait hole and I followed right behind.

"Oh, wow! Wait for me! I've never watched a Quidditch game before!"

Colin scrambled through the hole after us.

"It'll be really boring," Harry said quickly, but Colin ignored him, his face shining with excitement.

"You were the youngest House player in a hundred years, weren't you, Harry? Weren't you?" said Colin, trotting alongside us. "You must be brilliant. I've never flown. Is it easy? Is that your own broom? Is that the best one there is?"

I had to stop myself from scoffing. "Youngest player." What was I then? So what if I was actually a few months younger than Harry and was really the youngest player on the team. It wasn't like anyone really cared. All they could see was Harry, Harry and only Harry.

"I don't really understand Quidditch," said Colin breathlessly. "Is it true there are four balls? And two of them fly around trying to knock people off their brooms?"

At that, I sped up, deciding that I had had enough of their talk and would rather walk alone. The morning air was crisp and cool, and woke me up almost instantly.

The rest of the Gryffindor team were already in the changing room when I got there. Wood was the only other person who looked truly awake. Fred and George Weasley were sitting, puffy eyed and tousle haired, next to Katie Bell and Angelina Johnson, who were yawning as well.